Now it was Taymar’s turn to stare in amazement. “A species of crazy people?”
“Yeah. I was told by someone, I don’t remember who, that there is an entire group of people on Drani who are absolutely crazy. They run around trying to kill each other all the time. I think he called them Arnells.”
Taymar shot her friend one of her more intimidating looks. It didn’t take much with Daryans. “They are called Arleles, and I am one of them.”
“Hey, don’t get mad. I’m just repeating what I heard.”
Taymar said nothing. She listened with mild amusement to her friend’s mental debate about whether or not to ask her next question. After sufficient torture, Taymar saved her the trouble. “I’m not crazy, but Arleles do fight. It’s in our nature. Fighting is how we achieve an order in our society.”
“When you say fight, do you mean argue or...”
“I mean, we fight. With whatever we have, we fight. We don’t stop until someone walks away or someone is dead. Unless a Dran intervenes, which is what usually happens.”
“The Dran are the other species that lives there?”
Taymar nodded.
“Are they like you?”
Rook’s mind was as open as her mouth. And once again, Taymar wished she hadn’t told Rook about her telekinetic ability. “No. Dran are all telepathic. They are never telekinetic.” Skirting around Rook, Taymar resumed her trek.
“What about the Arleles? Are they like you?”
“No. Nobody is like me.”
“So the other Arleles are also just telepathic?”
“Arleles are usually telekinetic. Some are telepathic. I am supposedly the first person to be both. And remember, you can’t tell anyone I’m a teke.”
“I bet you were treated extra special there too then, huh?”
Taymar snorted. Rook had no idea how horribly true her statement was. If the Dran had treated her any more special, they would have killed her. “Rook, can we talk about something else, please? Like why Idin is avoiding me?”
“He’s avoiding you because you threw him across the room after bouncing him on his head a few times. What’s worse, you did it in front of his boss. He will probably avoid you for the rest of his life. Why do you hate Drani? What happened there?”
“But he challenged me to a fight. What was I supposed to do? Let him win?”
Rook stamped her foot along the side of the path, kicking away the powdery dust. “I think you lost my rock. He didn’t challenge you to a fight. He challenged you to a contest. It’s a game with little colored cubes and round chips. How can you be telepathic and miss those important little details? You lost my rock.”
Inside, Taymar groaned and wiped away the dust that tickled her nose. She could add that one to her long list of serious transgressions against Daryan culture. “I don’t spend my day reading minds. He should have said something.”
“When? While you trying to remove his head? You’re avoiding my question.”
“I will get you another rock. You can have mine if you can find it. Should I apologize?”
“You can try, if you can get Idin to stay in the same room with you. I’m not talking about the rock, and you know it. Why do you hate Drani?”
Taymar stopped and faced her friend. If nothing else, Rook was persistent—to the point of being infuriating. “All right, Rook. Here it is. Arleles fight. The Dran intervene. I used to fight all the time. I was in trouble all the time. One day when I was young and very stupid, this janu, like a guard, was escorting me back to my room in the unit. I was mad, and the other Arleles in the unit kept sending insults at me. I started a fight in my living unit that quickly turned into a riot. The janu who was escorting me was killed. Even though I didn’t kill him, I knew I was about to be in serious trouble. I was afraid I was going to be sentenced to sakuritu, so I ran.
“Up until that day, no one knew that I was also telekinetic, and you can’t tell anyone here that I am. But getting out of Newete is not easy even when you live right on the border. I made it as far as the perimeter field, but my armband wouldn’t let me go through. I had to go over the field, and the only way to do that was by using my telekinesis. So I did. I was caught just on the other side, but worse than being caught was that my secret was out. The Dran knew I had both abilities. That is when the tests and the Dran overseers started. It was that way for four and a half years, until the Shreet came and I escaped. I am not going back.”
Taymar watched Rook’s reactions with hope and dread. “Now you know. There is nothing else to tell you. I am trying to control myself, and I want to make things right with Idin. Will you help me?”
For an eternal pause, Rook stared. Taymar could see the shock beneath the ridge over the woman’s narrow eyes. “How did you get away from the Shreet?”
“Like I said, I stole a shuttle and came here. By the time the Alliance realized I wasn’t one of their pilots, I was gone.”
Rook looked at the ground. Nodded. Then looked up again. “I will help you with Idin.”
Taymar let her breath out. “Thanks.”
“And I want my rock back.”
“I’ll find you another one.”
“You do realize that the Alliance will eventually come looking for their shuttle.”
“Not today, I hope.”
“Probably not. What color sarokk are you looking for?”
“A blue one, I think. We’ll see when we get there.”
“If we get there. I don’t know why you insist on walking everywhere you go. We may not be as technologically advanced as Drani, but we do have transtrems.”
With a bump of her shoulder, Taymar pushed her friend off the path. The vines scrambled to get out of the way. “It’s good for you.”
Rook scowled. “Sure.”
###
Taymar glanced across the purple horizon. It was long past time to go back. The Daryan day moon had already set. The sun would soon follow, and Daryus was no place for a newcomer after nightfall. Ahead, a ball of blue fur leaped into the air and tackled the plume end of a tall red reed. The unfortunate stalk snapped with the additional weight, and the little creature crashed back into the grass.
Laughing, Taymar reached out with her mind to call the young animal back. Instead of locking onto the frantic hum of the sarokk’s thoughts, she touched a mind she wasn’t expecting—one who wasn’t expecting her, either. The shocked woman broke off the connection immediately, but not before Taymar caught her intent. Whoever she was, she was here for Taymar.
With some effort, Taymar choked down her panic and slipped behind a tree to think. She didn’t dare make a mental sweep of the area. Whatever she sent would work against her if the other telepath was even decent. Thoughts went both ways. And to make matters worse, dusk was falling fast. She had to find shelter, and home wasn’t an option.
Shadows slithered from their hiding places as the sun dipped behind the horizon. Feeling her nervous tension, the sarokk scurried to her side and clawed his way up her leg and arm. His tail tickled her skin as he twisted it around her neck and fluffed out his fur in agitation. The smell of dirt and dead leaves filled her nostrils, and his nervous chirps vocalized Taymar’s feelings—feelings she needed to get under control before her emotions became a beacon for the other telepath.
The transtrem was on the opposite side of the house from where she stood. She considered making a wide circle around the house to reach it, but the residual red glare of the waning sun told her she didn’t have time. On the other hand, getting to Rook’s house on foot would take longer.
“Dicci!” She watched the shadows stretched across the forest floor and made her decision. Not that there was much of one to make. She had to run for the transtrem.
Slipping silently from one hiding spot to another, she melted into the thickest part of the forest. With each new turn, her stomach twisted into a tighter knot. Thoughts of Drani flooded her mind, clouded her thinking. She squeezed them out and focused on landing each footfall in silence, but the raw emo
tion couldn’t be squelched.
Above the anxious chatter of the sarokk, the forest continued to shuffle awake. The sweet scent of living things and wet ground filled the air as a vine slid down from an overhanging branch. Another thin, ropelike tendril slipped around her wrist. Taymar spun and ripped the offending vine from the tree. For an instant, she saw Nevvis reaching out from the branch, grabbing at her arm. She searched for his amber eyes but saw only a shadow, a trick of the waning light. Only a nightmare. Taymar pushed the memories back and focused on getting to the transtrem. Rook would take care of the intruders, but Taymar had to get there first.
The little sarokk’s claws dug deeper into Taymar’s shoulder as the creature reflected his owner’s tension. All around her, the forest teemed with life. Unseen feet scampered across the forest floor, and the carnivorous vines rustled as they moved into position, sounding too much like the whisper of activated confinement beams. She shook off the horrible memory and darted for another tree.
Something brushed her arm. As Taymar spun to face her challenger, the sarokk squealed at the sudden movement and leaped away into the darkness. The small red vine that had touched her continued its silent journey down the trunk of the tree, but it had been warning enough. Missing sarokk or not, she had to get out of the forest. Taymar ran.
Straining to see through the now purple night, she plunged forward. A stump caught her foot, sending her sprawling. As she fought to regain her footing, a vision of kneeling on the walkway in Central Newete flashed through her mind. The cold fingers of the sedative running through her body felt so real that she clenched a fist full of dirt to regain her bearings. She would not go through that again. She would die before she would go back. Taymar pushed herself back up and set out again with renewed vigor.
Just ahead, the dim light of her home peeked through the trees. She paused. Sweat trickled down her face, stinging a cut on her cheek. A figure moved against the doorway. Then, as she watched, another rounded the corner from the back. Obviously, the telepath had not come alone, but how many more were there? How many people hid in the trees, waiting for her to pass? How many guarded the transtrem? Still, it was her only chance.
Barely managing a slow jog thanks to the dense undergrowth, Taymar set out for the transtrem. Blood dripped from a cut on her arm, and the constant stumbling was beginning to take its toll on her knees. As the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the suffocating darkness crept in.
She jumped a log that seemed to spring up in front of her, ripped through a clump of bushes, and then slid to a stop. Across the tiny clearing, someone or something waited for her. The darkness was deceptive. She could barely make out the person’s features, but there was no hiding her opponent’s size. He was sending out male aggression and he was massive, both in height and in sheer mass. Fighting him would be no easy task, but he stood between her and the transtrem.
Taymar stepped away from the bushes and reached for his mind. Her teke would be no help in the poor light, but she could listen to his thoughts.
As the man drew nearer, Taymar was able to get a better look at him. He was like nothing she had ever seen before. What little light remained seemed to reflect off his teeth, or were they fangs? Had she been able to make out his hands in the darkness, they surely would have ended in claws, not fingers. But he was still just a man. He walked on two legs and swung two arms as he crossed the clearing, so Taymar stayed in his head and waited.
With each step the man took, she came to two conclusions. The first was that he was neither Shreet nor Dran. The second was that he was not taking her seriously. Like the Dran keepers, he expected his presence alone to inspire surrender. Taymar didn’t see it that way.
She lunged. True to her expectations, her attack caught him completely off guard. Too late he raised his arms to block, and in doing so, he exposed himself to Taymar’s brutal kick in what she hoped was his groin. She wasn’t sure if her target area would prove to be a good choice since she didn’t know what this creature was, but her guess was rewarded. The man doubled over in agony.
A moan escaped him in the form of a low growl. He gasped for air, but she didn’t wait long enough for him to get it. Combining her physical strength and her telekinesis, Taymar brought the man’s huge head crashing against her knee. Blood spurted into the air, covering Taymar’s shirt and pants and filling her nostrils with the tangy scent of battle. He staggered backward, grabbing at his face, but Taymar didn’t stop. The rush of the fight pulsed with her thumping heart as she ripped a laser gun from his belt, pressed it against his abdomen, and fired three times. The man-creature collapsed in her arms.
Searing pain clawed into her ribcage. The man barely breathed. Blood spattered the silky hair that covered his body and continued to stream out from his shattered nose. He was no longer the threat, but someone else was. Still clutching him to her, Taymar turned to face her next opponent.
Through the trees, a mere shadow paused. Taymar didn’t need to see her, though. She knew this shadow.
The telepath’s dark hair draped her shoulders like the night itself, and her eerie white skin almost shone against the darkness. So did her weapon as she took aim. Instantly, Taymar dragged the hulking body in front of her so he could absorb the shots. Then, from behind the cover of her shield, Taymar teked the weapon from the woman’s grip, sending it flying into the forest. Shock screamed from the silhouette’s mind. Taymar reached around the limp giant and shot back. The woman ducked, but Taymar’s sweeping blast caught her across the chest. There was a pause. Like the man, the woman collapsed.
Dropping the giant man to the ground, Taymar turned once more toward the transtrem and bolted. Pain like a stream of fire stabbed into her leg. Bushes slapped her face as she reeled forward. Only by grabbing onto a branch did she manage to stay on her feet. She pulled herself up, grasping at the trunk, but her arms wouldn’t obey.
The third time, Taymar didn’t feel the burning of the laser, although she knew it had hit. She didn’t feel anything. Darkness, darker than the Daryan night flooded her mind. There was no holding it back. The trees faded into nothing. The sound of rushing water filled her ears and her voice was lost. The ground came rushing into her face, but before it could hit, the darkness consumed her.
Chapter 7 – Waiting
The journey back to consciousness felt like swimming in mud. Images slipped through Taymar’s mind, but before she could cling to any of them, they faded. An odor, oddly familiar, filled her nostrils. She focused on it. She knew that smell. What was it?
Voices droned in the background as random thoughts slipped by at regular intervals. They blended together to create an annoying hum that only added to her throbbing head. But they were definitely voices.
That smell again. Stale. Used. Sterile. Taymar struggled to hold onto one thought, any thought, but the dark sleep called her back. Something gritty stuck to the roof of her mouth. From swimming in mud, maybe. Or eating it. Why did she eat dirt? What was all the noise? Voices. Different voices. As she listened, they became more distinct. She knew the language. She had heard it before. With all her will, Taymar strained to listen and her effort was repaid by a renewed vigor to the thumping in her head.
Frustrated, she tried again. No sleeping. That smell. She knew it. Clean, but somehow still old. Not musty, just used. As if it had been used, cleaned, and then used again. Her heart pounded as she finally made the connection. Realization ripped away the lingering veil of unconsciousness, and she sucked in the scent of sterilized air. She was in a medical lab.
Taymar forced her eyes open. A glaring blur of nothing hung before her. As shapes slowly came into focus through the blinding light, blurred splotches melted into vid panels and machines. Her guess had been right. She was in a lab, but not one on Drani. She tried to push herself off the bed, but restraining beams held her in place. The voices stopped.
With some effort, she managed to turn her head. The two people who had paused their conversation now watched her with matching express
ions of concern. The man was short, shorter even than a Daryan, with oddly pointed facial features and muted yellow skin. She had never seen a creature like him before, but his partner she recognized right away. Taymar had no trouble matching the stranger’s dark silhouette with the one that had been masked behind the trees. The woman’s impossibly black hair created a cape behind her that was too much like the night sky that had sheltered her in the forest. Taymar felt the familiar pull of the woman’s mind, the same mind that had sought her out in the jungle. She locked onto that mind and glared into the black eyes of the telepath who had shot her on Daryus.
If the woman was stupid enough to try mental contact again, then she deserved whatever happened to her. And this time, Taymar didn’t have to hide. She forced her way past the woman’s barriers and didn’t hold back. Driven by fear and vengeance, Taymar surged into the telepath’s mind with all of the raw mental energy she could gather. Hate fostered her fury, and she ripped through her opponent’s feeble attempts to defend herself with the mental version of fifty knives shredding at the woman’s fragile consciousness. The force of that attack was so vicious and unexpected that the black-eyed telepath’s head snapped back just before she dropped with a thump to the floor, her mind empty.
“Ranealla!” the small man cried, running to the fallen woman’s side. But there wasn’t a thing he could do and Taymar knew it.
Without moving, Taymar invaded the empty space of the woman’s mind with practiced precision. One at a time, she began tangling the woman’s thoughts as they entered her head. With every frantic attempt to make sense of what had happened, Taymar twisted and turned until confusion was all that remained. The telepath tried to push against the barriers as Taymar formed them, but without the ability to think clearly, she was caught in a continuous dream not of her own making. And like the restraint beams that held Taymar to the bed, a knot of confusion trapped her opponent in her own mind. The black-eyed woman lay motionless on the floor.
With the man’s frantic attention on the woman, Taymar concentrated her energy on the restraints. There was no point trying to break them. She knew that much already. They had to be deactivated, and that knowledge had to be in the pointy man’s head.
Shield of Drani (World of Drani Book 1) Page 10